Dec 1 Buffalo Trace Holiday Season Email Newsletter

For those of you not subscribed to the Buffalo Trace Newsletter, an email was sent out this morning with some fairly un-interesting news including the new interactive feature that will allow folks to create a fictional Bourbon that can only be enjoyed in the form of 1s and 0s. However, I did enjoy their short response to consumers concerning purchasing BT products from the secondary market. My favorite lines are:

"We are continuing our efforts to shut down the illegal "secondary" market for our Whiskeys."

"With respect to pricing, while it is illegal for us to dictate the prices charge by a retailer...."

And my favorite - "If you do come across examples of price gouging, we are always interested in hearing about them."

Basically what BT is telling us, the consumer, is that they have no power to stop the "secondary" market or retailers from price gouging. However, if you want to send a rage filled hate email they are happy to listen and subsequently delete.

The full email newsletter text can be read below.

-Mark @ Entry Proof

Hello to old friends and new,

We would like to wish you all a very happy holiday season. We hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! This year has been full of exciting news and expansions here at the Trace, and we look forward to another great year of bourbon making in 2016!

In order to be email considerate, we have pasted a photo collage of a manageable size and attached the photo collage for those email accounts that prohibit embedded photographs.

Recent Awards

We would like to give the heartiest of congratulations to our very own Freddie Johnson, tour guide at the Distillery, on winning the 2015 ROSE Award from the Louisville Convention and Visitor Bureau. The ROSE Award (Recognition of Service Excellence "ROSE") honors employees in the tourism and hospitality industry who positively enhance a visitor's experience during their stay in the Louisville area. The Awards cover several categories, and are presented to employees who distinguish themselves through enthusiasm and exemplary service. Freddie won in the "tour guides and hosts" category.

We would also like to congratulate our master distiller and visitor center manager who were each honored at “Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky America Awards 2016,” for their hard work at the Distillery. Harlen Wheatley was named “Master Distiller of the Year” and Matt Higgins was recognized as “highly commended” for Visitor Attraction Manager of the Year.

We appreciate all their hard work!

Corn Harvest

This fall we harvested our first crop of corn on the recently purchased farm land that lies adjacent to the Distillery.

In May of this year, we planted our first seeds of non-GMO corn using the same strain of corn used at the distillery by Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. in 1870.

In October, the 18 acres of corn were harvested and the corn has now begun its journey in what will ultimately be Buffalo Trace's own farm-to-table "Single Estate" experience. This bourbon will be a separate, stand-alone brand with its own identity. The name, age, price, and any other details have yet to be determined. Presently, we are drying the corn until the moisture level drops below 14%, at which point we will be able to mill the corn for cooking, this should be accomplished by March of 2016. We will keep you updated on our progress!

The American Bourbon Association

We are very pleased to announce the official launch the American Bourbon Association website http://americanbourbonassociation.com,which is dedicated to the development of American Bourbon whiskey knowledge around the world.

The Scotch whisky industry has done a very good job of developing Scotch whisky all over the world with the help of the Scotch Whisky Association.

As a result, we started the American Bourbon Association in 2012 to educate people world-wide about bourbon whiskey.

The website was launched this spring with a mission to become the best source of bourbon news and information online. Curious consumers are invited to learn about distilleries and bourbon brands, not just made in Kentucky, but from all over the United States.

The website gives the history of bourbon, written by esteemed bourbon historian Mike Veach, as well as what is bourbon, how it’s made, myths, links to bourbon distilleries and brands, bourbon news, and lists of bourbon bars and great bourbon retail stores. Links to bourbon-related blogs, bourbon societies, brand and distillery websites, publications, trade associations and much more are also included.

We invite you to check out the website and hope you find it useful.

Craft Your Perfect Bourbon

If you’re new to bourbon, or confused about how bourbon whiskey is made and the subtle nuances of recipes, aging, proof and warehousing, or perhaps just curious to create your own perfect bourbon, we’ve created a new interactive website to help answer these questions as you craft a bourbon to your preference, atwww.yourperfectbourbon.com.

How it works: In just three minutes, users can design a bourbon perfect for their own taste. Once online, visitors will select their own bourbon recipe and learn how the grains such as corn, wheat, rye and barley influence the taste. Adding more rye results in a more “daringly spicy” bourbon, for example. Visitors will then see animated graphics explaining how the distillation process works, before witnessing just what 55 seconds of charring can do to an oak barrel. Then users on this bourbon journey get to select which level in the aging warehouse they want their barrel to age, and learn how different elevations within a warehouse ultimately impact the taste of each bourbon. Aging and proof round out the end of the experience, before each custom designed bourbon is complete. Then a description of each participant’s perfect bourbon is unveiled, based on their individual preferences. While each custom designed bourbon is unique, the website will also identify actual brands from the Buffalo Trace portfolio that taste most similar in profile, helping fans learn what they might like the next time they crave a sip of bourbon whiskey.

We invite you to check out this neat feature and have some fun creating your own perfect bourbon.

Secondary Market

We do receive many e-mails enquiring about the online or “secondary” market for our whiskies and especially the high prices being charged for them. We would like to take this opportunity to address the question as we enter the holiday shopping season.

Our strong recommendation is not to buy our whiskeys on the “secondary” market, aside from the fact that it is illegal in most states, there is also no guarantee about what you might be buying from a product provenance standpoint. Sadly, we see mounting evidence in other parts of the world around counterfeit spirits. We do not want to see any customer of ours duped in the secondary market nor having to pay exorbitant prices. We are continuing our efforts to shut down the illegal “secondary” market for our whiskeys.

The U.S. has a well-developed system for the distribution of spirits which involves us, a distiller, selling to a distributor who in turn sells to a retailer. While the system is not perfect, it does provide many consumer protection benefits, including a very good chain of custody for the spirits you purchase. Our recommendation is to always buy our whiskeys from a fully licensed retailer.

With respect to pricing, while it is illegal for us to dictate the prices charged by a retailer, we have maintained our pricing policies over time such that both our distributor and retail partners can make an appropriate profit and still sell our whiskeys for a reasonable price so that our main goal can be achieved – the enjoyment of great whiskey at an affordable price. If you do come across examples of price gouging, we are always interested in hearing about them.

For our part, we continue to distill and age evermore whiskey, which hopefully over time will alleviate the supply / demand imbalance we have seen in recent times.

Hope this helps answer an oft asked question.

Events

Our Disturbia at the Distillery event on Oct. 30 went over very well. Thanks to everyone who joined us for that event.

This Thursday, Dec. 3 we will host our seventeenth annual Lighting of the Trace where we will flip the switch to turn on more than 110,000 holiday lights across the Distillery. Following the Lighting ceremony Santa Claus will be in the Clubhouse to take pictures and hear Christmas wishes.

If you are unable to make it to the Lighting, Santa will return to the distillery Dec. 11, 12, 18 and 19 from 6-8 p.m.

Everyone is invited to drive through the Distillery grounds nightly from dusk to 11 p.m. Dec. 3 through Jan. 2 to see the thousands of lights and colorful displays.

Next month we will again have our Legendary Craftsmen Dinner Series where guests will get to do tastings of our Legendary Craftsmen’s namesake bourbons.

If we can be of any help at all with questions, needs, wants please just reply to this e-mail and it will be personally answered. If there are topics you would like to hear about from us, please do let us know that too.

In closing, and on behalf of all the 450 folks at the Trace, thank you for your support of our whiskeys, it is very much appreciated.